Spider Man: Duty And Loss - Chapter 74

The five of them walked out of the room into the gloomy corridor that awaited them. They didn’t speak much as Reed was still recovering and the rest were just glad that they had escaped so quickly. They kept their senses heightened still worried that they might spring a trap or raise the alarm.

Peter was the most nonchalant of them all as he strolled in front of the group listening to Crystal as she directed him to the vibranium. Whether it was because of his spider sense that would tell him that he was in trouble, past experience that had dulled his reaction, or just plain laziness, he walked lazily ahead.

The silence was starting to grate into their nerves as Peter spoke up. They had been walking past other doors that housed similar cells to the ones they escaped. Their surroundings were made of solid grey brick that screamed gloom and doom, while there were wet patches everywhere.

Peter could have even sworn that he saw a rat run by once or twice. “For a guy so technologically advanced, he sure does love his Dungeon décor. I already thought he had enough doom and gloom in his life. See what I did there.”

Peter gave a small chuckle to himself as he moved forwards. The rest stopped as they heard his words, before Johnny cracked a smile and let the tension release from his shoulders. The rest soon followed suit as Peter continued to talk.

“Hey I know you guys just love being called the Fantastic four.” The sarcasm was heavy in his voice. “But when we team up I think we should change it. Like right now if Doom walked through the door, he would scream, ‘Your Doom has arrived Fantastic Four and Bug.’ Though he did call me arachnid before, he would probably get it right a second time…probably.”

Peter had a pondering expression as he continued to move forwards. Sue rolled her eyes at his antics, and Ben had to stop himself from chuckling. Peter shook his head as he refocused. “Either way, I think when we team up like this, we should change our name and what better name than….Drum roll please!”

He stopped as if he was actually waiting for them to do a drum roll, when no one did, he continued on like nothing had happened. “The Fantastic Five!” Peter puffed his chest out as he stopped for a second, a self-satisfied expression on his face.

“We can keep the ‘FF’ Initials, saves on rebranding. Don’t want to waste the money and already cemented merchandise!” Johnny couldn’t help himself this time has he started to laugh. Everyone was now much more relaxed as they moved through the lower levels of Doom’s castle.

As they turned another corner, Ben spoke from the side. “So why didn’t Doom take off your mask, I’m sure he would just love to know your secret Identity?” Everyone turned to look at Peter. It was something they hadn’t thought about, but knowing Doom’s personality it was a no brained that when they woke up, Spidey shouldn’t have had a mask on.

Now that Ben had brought up the point, they started to wonder. Peter looked at the hulking man as he shrugged his shoulders. “I can stick to a wall and hold myself up with one finger. If I don’t want this mask coming off, no one short of burning my face off will get it off.”

Reed, who had somewhat recovered turned to look at him now. “But how does that work when you’re unconscious?” Peter tapped his chin slowly as he hadn’t thought of that either. Something that really shouldn’t have gotten past him. “I’m not sure actually.” Reed gave a small nod as he also retreated into his thoughts.

He was a scientist through and through. Even though they were in Doom’s castle and sneaking around trying not to get caught, he was still more concerned with how Spider-Man stuck to everything. As both men were stuck in their thoughts, Johnny saddled up to Peter and nudged him.

Looking over in confusion Johnny spoke in a conspirator whisper, but it was loud enough that everyone heard. “So every part of your body is sticky.” Peter gave a small nod as the smile on Johnny’s face grew. “Soooo, I guess many women would be please by such a fact.”

*Cough* *Bang* Peter coughed and shook his head as Johnny started to laugh. Reed had stopped for a second before he continued on his way, while the Thing stumbled at the words. Ben shot Peter a look, which was half between horror and respect before he straightened himself and kept walking.

Finally Sue turned invisible, but not before smacking Johnny on the back of the head. “Ouch!” Sue said nothing else as she stayed invisible, she didn’t want the others to see her clearly red face. After that quip the group stayed quiet for a few minutes, before Sue finally reappeared.

The rest acted like nothing happened as she moved closer to her brother. She also whisper just loud enough that everyone could hear. “If I hear something like that out of you again, I’m going to levitate your bed outside while you sleep and drop you in a lake.”

Johnny raised an eyebrow at the threat and was about to say something along the lines of, ‘IS that all?’ When she continued. “For 2 months straight.” His opened mouth shut quickly as he walked to catch up with Reed. Just before he left she added. “And I’ll change where I leave you each time. Below a wasps nest sounds nice.”

Johnny shivered as Ben and Peter tried to hold in their laughter.

They had finally gotten out of the creepy dungeon looking area without incident and had run into none of the Doom bots, or anything else. Crystal’s readings showed that the Vibranium was close. Something that Peter had just told the others.

The problem came when the rounded a corner and came face to face with 4 people in armour. Silver shinned of their nicely polished suits as they stood in front of a certain door. With grill type visors over their mouths and red eye lenses, they looked over at the Fantastic Five.

With huge shoulder pads and a slick design that screamed dangerous, they had spikes on the back of their wrists, as well as studded boots. Their gauntlets were a cold metallic silver, but they had the same design of an iron man suit, with a small circle indent in the middle of their palms.

Likely to not be using repulsor technology, they probably had a deadlier type of laser hidden. Standing at the front of the four figures, the man in the lead stepped forwards as he raised his hand. His gruff voice could just be heard as a small whirling sounded up. “The Fantastic Four.”

They, who had been stunned to suddenly run into the group, snapped out of their thoughts as they prepared for battle. Peter, who was at the front of the group, couldn’t help but get one last quip in before the battle started.

“It’s the Fantastic Five. GOD!” The leader turned to look at the pouting spider for a second, before he fired a green shot off at Ben who just dodged the blast. But the wall behind him crumbled under the green bolt of energy. “Hail Doom.” “””Hail Doom!”””

The Doom Squad Advanced forwards as they prepared to do what they were trained for. Killing the Fantastic Four.